Lone Locust Productions

Month: May 2006

  • Clawing Their Way To The Top

    FOXNews.com => Fossilized Claw May Reinforce Bird-Dinosaur Evolutionary Link

    One of the (justified?) criticisms laid before paleontology is that some of the conclusions drawn come from insufficient evidence.

    Obviously, virtually everything determined from fossil evidence is, to one degree or another, an inference and subject to debate, but as the field of science expands and improves, the inferences are usually made with ever improving authority.

    That said, if this article can be believed, it’s a far stretch from one claw fossil to “new species” and “new dino-bird link”.

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  • Let’s Go Exploring…

    SPACE.com => Planets Found in Potentially Habitable Setup

    Three medium-sized planets of roughly the same mass as Neptune have been discovered around a nearby Sun-like star, scientists announced today.

    The planets were discovered around HD 69830, a star slightly less massive than the Sun located 41 light-years away in the constellation Puppis (the Stern), using the ultra-precise HARPS spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory’s 3.6-meter La Silla telescope in Chile.

    This sun-sized star with it’s smaller planes is on 41 light years away. Just a hop skip and a jump, once we overcome the physical laws of the universe (or at least re-write them.)

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  • The Macbook Cometh

    I ordered my new Macbook yesterday, and, with any luck, it will arrived early next week. (I’m dreaming that it might arrive this week. Some hopes!)

    In any case, the Macbooks, like the Macbook Pros and the last iterations of the Powerbooks and iBooks have a motion sensor used to lock the hard drive in the event of sudden movement. It’s a great idea, nothing too earthshaking, but there have been some amusing side effects. For example, on my iBook I have a widget that allows me to use it as a level. (The level would work better if it was actually level, but as a proof-of-concept it’s interesting.)

    In the last couple days I’ve been seeing people who have converted the motion sensor to act as a joystick, a lightsaber (the macbook makes authentic lightsaber noises when you swish the laptop around) and this user interface hack:

    Technology Wrap Block => Macbook Motion Sensor Hack

    While I don’t think I’d use this type of interface, I do think it would be immensely gratifying if someone could adopt it for Windows PCs. Perhaps that could be the Next Big Thing for Windows Vista?

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  • More on Dracorex…

    Discovery Channel => ‘Hogwarts’ Dragon Unveiled

    I’m still annoyed at the stupid name they gave this new specimen, but it is turning out to have some fascinating consequences. Dracorex is in the pachycephalosaur family, a group of dinosaurs typically associated with large, domed, heavily-fortified skulls. It’s often been speculated that they used them to ram each other during courtship displays.

    The new dinosaur is more recent and, exactly opposite to expectations, the head is more flat with lots of cool spikes.

    Personally, I would expect the head to get flatter with each generation if they keep smacking each other on the top of the skull.

    (Side note: No surprises here => ‘Pachycephalosaur’ is not in my online spell checker.)

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  • Maybe Global Warming Isn’t So Bad?

    BBC NEWS => Mammoth skeleton found in Siberia

    A very rare, complete mammoth skeleton has been found exposed by receding flood waters on the banks of a reservoir.

    The Russians haven’t got enough money to dig it out, though. Perhaps we should take up a collection or the producers of Ice Age 2 could come to the rescue and pony up the money?

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  • Bad Names for Good Dinosaurs

    Yahoo => New Dinosaur Species Gets a Touch of Harry Potter With Help From PHMC Staffer

    HARRISBURG, Pa. Visitors to the State Museum can get a taste of Harry Potter and brush with prehistoric America with a newly discovered dinosaur species that got its name thanks to the help of a Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission paleontologist.

    “Dracorex hogwartsia”!!!! I had hoped this wasn’t real when I first saw it on some Harry Potter fan boy site… Think of all those poor hippies’ children named “Moonbeam”, “Freedom” and “Solstice”. All the other dinosaurs in Dinosaur Heaven are going to pick on him.

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  • Giant Slab of Earth’s Crust Found Near Core

    LiveScience.com => Giant Slab of Earth’s Crust Found Near Core

    Seismic measurements taken during a recent earthquake have provided the first direct evidence confirming the theory that, as the Earth’s crust is subsumed into the mantel, it makes it’s way to the core where it is ultimately melted and recycled to the surface in the form of lava.

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  • Doctor Who – The Age of Steel – Review

    Last season, my primary complaint about the new Doctor Who was that, episode after episode, the Doctor never saved the day. Today’s episode, the conclusion to last week’s “Rise of the Cybermen”, reverts to last season’s habit and I didn’t mind one bit.

    As London falls to the Cybermen and the world looks poised to follow, Mickey Smith, that blundering idiot from last season, after watching his alternate self die, steps up to the plate (and with a bit of direction from the Doctor) saves the day.

    While Mickey hard a great day, Rose didn’t fare so well: She looses Mickey forever, her “father” rejects her in the end and her “mother” is converted to a Cyberman. Perhaps it’s cosmic karma paying Rose back for being such a annoying person for most of this season.

    The pace is in this episode was a full-tilt the whole time, mixing a good balance of running, danger and action. There’s also some well-realized suspense and sadness. There’s a touching moment where a Cyberman’s personality and emotions are turned back on and the Doctor kills her rather than let her suffer.

    Just as he was getting useful, we loose Mickey forever in this episode – stranded in a alternate universe that conventional wisdom says can never be reached again. “Conventional wisdom” doesn’t hold up well in TV Science Fiction and I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see Mickey again, despite the odds.

    Besides, unlike the Daleks which were realized largely with CGI, they spent too much money on those Cybermen costumes not to use them again.

    This two-part episode is destined to be a Doctor Who classic.

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  • The Devil’s in the Details

    USATODAY.com => Up jumps the ‘Da Vinci’ devil

    There’s no doubt that the book the Da Vinci Code has taken the world by storm. But is it a good story or something more sinister? Apparently, a group of nuts believe it might the work of “the devil.”

    (For those of you unfamiliar with the story, the devil, or Satan, was an angel, created by a mythical all-powerful being called “god”. Apparently this god fellow was so powerful he was perfect and can do absolutely anything, but somehow he imperfectly created an angel who turned against him, and yet somehow this perfect, all powerful being can’t stop Satan, either. Luckily, myths don’t have to make sense.)

    Despite the hype, now that the movie is playing, the verdict seems to be that this is a dreadfully boring movie. So how does a blockbuster novel become a dreadfully boring film? Is it god? Did god make this film boring? Is that the best he can do? Practically any film school student can make a boring film and we can at least prove film schools exist.

    No, I think it’s something more sinister. It must be a conspiracy. Consider the facts:

    • The novel is a blockbuster
    • Ron Howard is by all accounts a competent director
    • Many powerful people in “the church” didn’t want this film made

    Could it be that they conspired to make this film boring?

    Any blockbuster novel is almost guaranteed to be optioned to be a big budget movie. What if the dark, shadowy figured of “the church”, through the use of secret funds and hidden corporations, arranged for themselves to have the option of making the film so that others would not have the opportunity?

    Then they arranged to have the film made, but made boring, so that people would loose interest in it and spend their hard-earned money in the collection box instead of the box office.

    It is a dark world indeed.

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  • …after…

    IMG_5832.JPG

    The whole thing is pretty much done. I’m missing two handles and the microwave shelf is still on order, but everything is set in place and being loaded up.

    Even though Mr. Soong did what I consider the “hard part”, it was a lot of work. It’s not something I’m looking forward to doing again, but, we are now committed: The other side of the kitchen (which is much larger) is still the old style and will need to be replaced… when we win the Arizona Lottery.


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